In the 1960s, two in three Americans called themselves Protestant. Now the Protestant group — both evangelical and mainline — has slid below the statistical waters, down to 48%, from 53% in 2007.

It’s not because they switched to a different religion; they just let go of any faith affiliation or label — and thus became what sociologists now refer to as ‘Nones.’

The figures come from Nones on the Rise, a new study released by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life

In its executive summary Pew says that in the last five years alone, the unaffiliated have increased from just over 15% to just under 20% of all U.S. adults.

Their ranks now include more than 13 million self-described atheists and agnostics (nearly 6% of the U.S. public), as well as nearly 33 million people who say they have no particular religious affiliation (14%)

And yet the survey also finds that many of the country’s 46 million unaffiliated adults are religious or spiritual in some way

With few exceptions, though, the unaffiliated say they are not looking for a religion that would be right for them. Overwhelmingly, they think that religious organizations are too concerned with money and power, too focused on rules and too involved in politics.

Pew also notes that

In addition to religious behavior, the way that Americans talk about their connection to religion seems to be changing. Increasingly, Americans describe their religious affiliation in terms that more closely match their level of involvement in churches and other religious organizations.

In 2007, 60% of those who said they seldom or never attend religious services nevertheless described themselves as belonging to a particular religious tradition. In 2012, just 50% of those who say they seldom or never attend religious services still retain a religious affiliation – a 10-point drop in five years.

These trends suggest that the ranks of the unaffiliated are swelling in surveys partly because Americans who rarely go to services are more willing than in the past to drop their religious attachments altogether.

Just 10% of those who describe their current religion as “nothing in particular” say they are looking for a religion that is right for them; 88% say they are not. Nevertheless, there is substantial switching from unaffiliated to affiliated. In the current survey, four-in-ten adults who say they were raised unaffiliated now identify themselves as religiously affiliated.

Security guards discovered the .9 calibre handgun when it showed up — nestled between a Bible and set of rosary beads — during an x-ray check as the priest, dressed in black robes and wearing a dog collar, boarded a ferry at Civitavecchia, north of Rome.

In jail the priest insisted for several hours that Catholic doctrine banned him from revealing details as the gun had been given to him during a confession.

The Daily Mail notes that under the Catholic Church’s Canon Law, ‘it is a crime for a confessor in any way to betray a penitent by word or in any other manner or for any reason’.

Eventually the priest told police that it had been handed to him by a ’70 year old parishoner’ who had asked him to get rid of it and he had planned to throw it into the sea mid voyage.

The priest will appear before a judge today for a preliminary hearing.

More doctors honor religious objections to blood transfusions: For years, many doctors have resisted accommodating religious tenets that they believe endanger their patients. But more physicians are practicing within the confines of religious restrictions, even when it might put their patients’ lives at risk.

Although alternatives to transfusions have been around for years, more physicians are weighing patients’ spiritual well-being and peace of mind as part of their treatment.

Jehovah’s Witnesses — theologically a cult of Christianity, and thus outside the boundaries of the Christian faith — are well-known for their objections to blood transfusions.

Jehovah’s Witnesses cite Acts 15 in their own New World translation of the Holy Scriptures to explain their objection to blood transfusions. “Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood.”

Most Christians believe that verse denounces pagan rituals such as eating and drinking blood. But Jehovah’s Witnesses interpret it as a prohibition on accepting blood that has been removed and stored. They also point to four verses in Leviticus and three verses in Deuteronomy to demonstrate that any blood spilled and not eaten (referring to animal blood) should not be reused, but given back to God.

Note that the New World Translation is a bible version used only by Jehovah’s Witnesses. It includes inaccurate translations meant to support various unbiblical doctrines of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, the legal organization behind the Jehovah’s Witnesses

About 300 bishops from around the world are gathered in Rome for the XIII Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops

Headed by the pope, the synod (a Church conference of bishops) has as its theme, “The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith.”

The synod’s working document speaks of the need to address the divergence between Catholic values and the reality of modern life in Europe and North America, and an “educational emergency” of children no longer being taught the faith.

Apparently it’s not a belated, or early, April Fool’s joke. Referring to a circular from the Churches’ Legislation Advisory Service, the Church of England has written to parishes warning them that conserves should not be sold in jars that have been previously used because of new food-hygiene regulations.

Churches are worried about the ban because jams and marmalades have been a staple of church fetes for centuries, and are a vital source of parish funds.

Canon Michael Tristram, of Portsmouth Cathedral is “anxious,” the Telegraph says, “not only from the fund-raising point of view for all our churches, but, also, because it goes against the green agenda of recycling.”

The circular cited the FSA’s “Guidance Notes for Food Business Operators on Food Safety, Traceability, Product Withdrawal and Recall.”

But an FSA spokesman appears to offer some hope: “With an occasional event, like a fund-raiser, our advice would be that that would probably not be considered to be a food business.”

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